Amal'ezulu (Zulu Horizons), first published in 1945 in the Bantu (later, African) Treasury Series by the University of the Witwatersrand Press, was the second volume of poetry produced by the renowned Zulu author B.W. Vilakazi. It was written during the ten years he spent living in Johannesburg, in 'exile' from his birthplace, KwaZulu-Natal. The poems in this collection represent a turning point in Vilakazi's life; they express yearnings for the beloved land, animals and ancestral spirits of his rural home, as well as expressions of deep disillusionment with the urban life he encountered in the 'City of Gold', and in particular the suffering of the black miners who brought this gold to the surface but never experienced the benefits of the wealth it produced for the mine owners. Vilakazi was deeply conscious of the subhuman system that held these miners in its grip, and gave voice to their suffering in many of the poems in the collection, in particular the now famous poem 'On the mine compounds.' Renowned as the father of Nguni literature, Vilakazi was both a traditional imbongi (bard) and a forward-looking poet who could fuse Western poetic forms with Zulu izibongo (praise poetry). In these poems he assumes the role of the voice of the voiceless, and gives poignant expression to the stoic endurance of those caught up in the brutalities of capitalist exploitation of African labour, and the appalling injustices of the migrant labour system.

Amal’ezulu

Arts & Photography

Vilakazi, Benedict Wallet

History & Criticism

Wits University Press

A comprehensive English and Zulu Dictionary. The first the English and Zulu Dictionary dictionary was published in 1958 by Wits Unviersity Press and compiled by C.M. Doke and B.W. Vilakazi, intended as a companion to the Zulu-English Dictionary compiled by Doke and Vilakazi (first published 1948 by Wits University Press). The first combined edition with English-isiZulu / isiZulu-English was published in 1990 and remains the definitive authority. A vised isiZulu orthography is introduced in this Fourth Edition in line with the approved PanSALB (2008) orthography revisions undertaken under the auspices and control of the Wits Language Centre, Johannesburg.

English-isiZulu / isiZulu-English Dictionary: Fourth Edition

Reference

Doke, C.M.

Malcolm, D. M.

Khumalo, Mzilikazi

Dictionaries & Thesauruses

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